The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1887-05-26
CAPTAIN srovER,s SNAKE FARM.
He Raises Rattlers and Other Reptiles for
Market and Finds 1t Pays.

He Raises Rattlers and Other Reptiles for
Market and Finds 1t Pays.
Your correspondent last Sunday visited
the celebrated snake farm-"Rattlesnak
Forty"-near Galton, ILL.,, owned and man
aged by Captain Dan Slower and wife, and
assisted by William Dunn, agent at the nli-
nois Central depot. 1t might be surmIsed
that the breeding and propagation of rattle
snakes and other reptiles was not only
dangerous but unpleasant occupation. How
ever these poor but honest people have
learned that there is money in snakes, and
last year they cleared almost enough from
their sales to pay the expenses of the family
of four.
"Who buy rattlesnakes, and what ON earth
do they want with them?" you ask. Why,
forthe oil. A firm in Philadelphia pays good
price for every rattlesnake delivered at the
laboratory. Mr.. Stover has contracted with
the firm to furnish them $50 of that species
during the present season at $2 25 each, none
to measure less than four feet in length, or to
be less than six years of age. The older the
snake the better and stronger the oil.
Sunday the sun shone. out bright and
warm, which brought out the snakes in large
numbers to bask in the warm rays and a.
Mr.. Stover said, would be good day to take
q stroll over 'Rattlesnake Forty" Procuring
a goodlstout stick and donning heavy pair
and Dunn in the hunt. Dunn is compara.
lively new man in the snake business, and
has had several narrow escapes from being
bitten by the deadly reptiles, but he is learn
ing fast. To show us how easy 1t is to kill O
hs yns eoe9 sunh ahs
half comatose condition, and giving it q
couple of whirls over his head in lightning
manner, he cracked it like a whip, causing
its head to part from its body and spin
through the air. Proceeding q little further,
we came to 'the mounds" little raised places
on the snake farm, where the snakes burrow
in winter and breed in summer. There are
thirty-seven of these mounds on the farm.
and on the south side of one of the largest OF
these, where they could get the full benefit
Of the, sun, lay coiled up soundly asleep
forty-three large rattlesnakes, seven black
snakes and numerouslother smaller reptiles,
not one of which seemed to recognize our
presence. Slower and Dunn do not kill off
the whole crop yearly, but leave many for
breedingpurposes
there contains probably dozen nests of eggs
and each nest at least ten eggs. I have found
nests that contained as high as eighteen
young rattlers, the largest not over two
inches in length. Their eggs are about the
size of those of partridge, but have q soft
and has never seen plow, and Dan says In
summer its native grass is very high, render
ing it an excellent place for the reptiles to
hide in"
After retiring to the house the two snake
breeders exhibited q string of rattles several
feet in length, which they captured last sum-
mer, the whole footing up 76S rattles.
Some of the snakes possessed twenty-five
rattles and a button, each rattle counting Q
year to its age and the button fraction Of
year.
Mrs. Slower also had in box of sawdust
under cook stove twenty-seven rattlesnake
eggs, which, she said, would begin to hatch
in few days, after which event the children
would be kept busy catching flies to feed the
tiny pets.
Slower and Dunn have several pet rattlers
around the house, which are as harmless as
kittens, made SO by their poison sac having
been removed from the roofs of their mouths
and their fangs clipped with pincers, all this
being done while the snakes were under the
influence of chloroform. They have no
equal as mice exterminators, and in the sum-
mer keep the place free from bugs, flies and
bad boys.
Besides supplying the Philadelphia firm
with snakes for their use, the breeders have
6lled orders for different parties in all parts
of the country, mostly physicians. A doctor
in st. Louis took several live pairs last sum-
mer at IS per pair.-Atlanta Constitutiom.